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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Back-to-school Monday

(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)6:03 AM: The last of the post-winter-break back-to-school days is here – Seattle Public Schools classes resume today after two weeks off.

Also of note: If you drive/ride/bike/walk along Delridge, get ready for the repaving project that begins Thursday in the Phase 1 zone (between Trenton and Henderson) – it’ll mean slower going and southbound detours (here’s the latest).

15 Replies to "TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Back-to-school Monday"

The traffic camera makes me appreciate rejecting the job offer on the eastside. Sure would be nice to have the 99 connect to i-90 once the tunnel is finished. I bet this would reduce the bridge traffic.

You’re the second person to mention that and I think there might be an ISP out there with caching problems – it’s been updating continuously on this end all morning, and it is NOT on our server, so there is no reason that it would update for me when I refresh the page (it is NOT an auto-refresh) and not for others. Last report I got, I looked at 7:52 and it showed that time stamp and an appropriate light level; now it’s lighter and time-stamped 8:48. Please try refreshing, cache-clearing, etc. – TR

I am new to commuting outside of WS in the morning, I have an 8 am class at SPU… bummer. Anyway, today was much different than the commute on Friday. Which is more like the daily commute? I try to leave by 7, what should I expect for the bridge and 99? Thanks!

Ian – IME the bridge is usually not bad if you get on it before 7, after that it gets more & more crowded until the 10:00 hour…but rarely will it take you an hour – you should be able to make your 8:00 class if you leave by 7:00

Ian – too bad your class isn’t at 8:30. If you get on the bridge at 8am, it will be free-sailing (disagree with gatewoodsue and the comment “more and more crowded until the 10:00 hour).
It’s really bad between 7-8 unless it’s a holiday, beautiful weather, or a Friday. Before and after you should be ok.

Ian, try going up Columbian Way to Beacon Hill, then past PacMed Hospital over to Broadway. You may encounter more traffic signals, but in the long run you’ll save time and miss a bunch of traffic. That’s the route I always take to go to the Swedish Medical Campus any time of the day as I-5 is always a mess!

Ian – I commute north on 99 and will say that the most unreliable hours are 7am-9:30am. It used to free up after 8:30, but the tunnel construction now bogs that down, and I do beleive more commuters are leaving earlier. Therefore, I try to hit the bridge by 7am rather than leave the house at 7am. If the 99N onramp backs up to west side of the high rise and you can see the car lights on 99 aren’t moving (which translates to >45 minutes), then I’ve done what Carolyn does and go up Columbia Way and head north across the Rizal bridge past the ID and down Boren to Westlake which will take you to SPU.

My two cents- i figured out that two of the four browsers i use on my smart phone show Jan. 2 screenshot. these particular browsers compress data and that seems a plausible factor. i dunno for sure, but doesn’t seem to be an isp issue, fyi.

(WSB photos by Patrick Sand) A crew working for the state Department of Natural Resources is back out on West Seattle beaches this week, cleaning up creosote - a toxic threat you might not even recognize as you walk along beaches strewn with old pilings containing literally tons of the substance lon...